Portrait of Kō Sūkoku
possibly 1817
Medium
Fan, wood with ink, color, gold, and silver on paper
Dimensions
17.8 × 45.7 cm, l. 31.2 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
James Parmelee Fund
Accession Number
1976.8
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Master of portraiture Watanabe Kazan’s memorial fan painting of the artist Kō Sūkoku (1730–1804) features a variant on one of the deceased’s poems by painter Tani Bunchō on the reverse. The short, unorthodox or comic poem (haikai) reads: The grave is readied / and the sake warmed. / Oh, the cold! Kazan was a disciple of Tani Bunchō, one of the most prominent painters of his day. The two first met in 1817, the year of the 13th anniversary of Kō Sūkoku’s death. In Japanese Buddhist practice, the 1...